I’m a messy person by nature. It takes a lot of intentional thought to avoid creating small piles of things all around my house. My bathroom is always a mess of hair products and tools, mixed in with my sons’ toy cars as evidence that I was trying to keep them occupied for 30 seconds so I could brush my teeth.

My closet, if I may say so myself, isn’t in terrible shape at the moment, but my wardrobe drawers are a bit of a nightmare.

I never took out my summer clothes from last year, and simply piled all my winter tops and sweaters right on top of them, so it’s been a bit chaotic to find a simple v-neck tee amongst the piles of shirts.

This spring, though, I decided to be a responsible grown up person and remove all my sweaters and winter clothes from my drawers since I likely won’t need them again until November. Not only does that make getting dressed a little easier, but it also reminds me of tops that I love that have since been buried in the mess!

I’m excited to be working with Persil on this project because it’s a new favorite detergent of mine. If this is a new brand to you, don’t be concerned that it’s difficult to find–you can pick it up at Walmart! The smell is amazing, and I’ve been so pleased with how clean and fresh my clothes are after they are washed with it. I almost always wash my clothes (even my whites!) in cool or cold water, and Persil is formulated to deliver it’s 10 dimensions of clean even in cold water. You don’t HAVE to use cold water, but if you do you can be sure your clothes will come out clean.

I knew I would be doing wash on the day that I embarked this project because I tend to wear tops a few times before I throw them in the laundry, in the same way that a lot of people wear their jeans a several times before being washed as well. Before I was going to put anything in storage for the summer, I wanted to be sure it was clean!

I like to spread this chore out to really see what I’m working with, so the first thing I do is take everything out of the drawers. Next I’ll sort through winter and summer tops, then I organize into a few different piles. Those piles are usually “donate”, “needs to be washed”, “put in storage”, “put back in drawer”.

After I have everything sorted, and before I start filling my drawers back up with the summer clothes, I’ll start a load of laundry. Did you know I usually do a load of laundry every day? I don’t believe in saving everything for 1 day, so I space it out during the first half of the week. My goal, every week, is to be finished with laundry by Thursday so I can enjoy the weekend without it. So my laundry schedule usually looks like whites on Monday, kids clothes on Tuesday and darks on Wednesday. “Special care” clothes get washed amongst that schedule and then usually hang to dry in my laundry room until I toss the wrinkles out of them!

The putting back of the summer clothes always required some sorting. I usually have a drawer dedicated to tank tops, t-shirts, nicer/dressier cotton shirts, loungewear or athleisure shirts, and then any long sleeve tops I want to hang onto for trips to the movie theater, where it’s always freezing.

Then I’ll fill up my clear storage box with all my winter sweaters, and bring it up to the attic. Pro tip: always use clear storage boxes so you can see what is inside of them!

Finally, I fill up a garage bag with any clothes that I’m taking to consignment or donating, and bring that immediately downstairs. If it sits in my bedroom for more than one day, I’ll forget about it. So the simple act of taking it down and sometimes even putting it into my car, means I’m 90% more likely to make it to the donation center that same week!

I’d strongly recommend doing this if you haven’t already! It can be a relatively quick project, as long as you are prepared and know what the end goal is. Knowing that next fall, when I go to do the great seasonal switch out again, I’ll have freshly cleaned clothes, makes the task seem much less daunting for the future.

Comments (18)

Melissa says

Posted April 28, 2017

Hi Kate!
I’m horrible about switching my clothes out for seasons as well. My winter stuff usually stays in my closet, which is a disaster. I’ve been thinking of moving stuff out this year! You’re post as motivated me. Where is your stripped Oh la la shirt from? Thanks.

Absolutely LOVE this laundry detergent!!! I found it while searching the laundry aisle at Wal-mart to find something to combat the “stinky front load washer smell” UGH!! It is SUCH A PAIN!!! I bought this to try and haven’t stopped using it!!! It is really great!!! Glad you think so too Kate:)

I am always so impressed with the way you wear white and have two small children. Like, how do you keep it clean and stain free. I have three littles and I can’t keep food off of me! What’s your secret to stain removing??

I love this post. We are currently packing to move to a new house. I swear to myself I would go ahead and change out my two girls cloths and pack the winter cloths away. This post was a perfect reminder to go through my own cloths as well before the move. I’m trying to making packing a whole house with two young kids (5 yrs and 9 months) easier but I’ve figured out I’m just fooling myself. Packing a house isn’t easy at all. Haha

I’ve been looking for a cold water detergent and now will have to give Persil a try! Thanks for introducing this brand. On a side note, I’m in love with your chest of drawers! Can I ask where it is from/the maker?? Thank you so much, Kate!

Great tips… haven’t quite gotten to the great switch out yet.
Loved the opp to get a coupon, but looks like you need phone to receive vs. getting it via laptop. Was that your experience too? I don’t use a phone for web browsing. Thanks!

That’s such a good idea for keeping on top of your laundry to have designated days – i usually do it whenever we’ve run out of something! Love the ideas for sorting through clothes now that the seasons are changing too, I think a sort out is on the cards for me too! Just curious, but is Persil not a big brand in the States? It’s big in the UK and remember my mum buying it when I was a kid – I still buy their capsules for the washing machine now, they do some lovely scents.

Kate, you’ve got to try stacking your shirts upright in your drawer so you can see them all at once! I’ve been doing it since college (and successfully convinced my super-messy roommate to do the same, which she has continued doing for nearly 20 years now). You’ll never have to mess them up looking for something again. It’s how the author of the Konmari method does it, too. I bet you’d love it 🙂